"... and the works of their hands tell a story - each thread connecting us to those who came before. And the story endures...."
from Piecework Magazine 1993

Kimberly Servello's Embroidery Blog

Kimberly Servello - Pattern Drawer and Embroideress

Saturday, December 17, 2011

And The Stockings Were Hung.....

Lo, Now is come the joyful’st feast

Let every man be jolly,

Each room with ivy leaves is drest,

And every post with holly.

George Wither 1660

Today many of us, myself included, pine for Christmas celebrations of the long distant past when we imagine life was simpler and therefore enjoyed more fully.

The world has become more worldly. There is more of dissipation and less of enjoyment. Pleasure has expanded into a broader, but a shallower stream, and has forsaken many of those deep and quiet channels where it flowed sweetly through the calm bosom of domestic life.

It may surprise you to find that the previous paragraph was written by Washington Irving in 1820. The concept that previous eras were simpler and therefore enjoyed more fully isn't a new one. In fact, it goes all the way back to Homer and probably beyond. The excerpt above is from one of Irving's Christmas stories in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, which tell of Geoffrey's Christmas holiday spent in a quaint old English manor house, where Squire Bracebridge has brought back the customs of Merry Olde England. It's a fun Christmas read for anyone interested in old English traditions, not scholarly though, since Irving has romanticized them. But, all the more fun for it!

Christmas stockings are my theme today - not an element of the Elizabethan's Christmas celebrations - and mine are admittedly very Dickensian. However, the embroidery on them is Elizabethan.

The main pattern on the first two stockings is taken from a portrait, circa 1540, titled Portrait of a Lady in White by Moretto da Breccia and housed at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. I have also seen this blackwork motif on an English sampler, dated 1661, included in Louisa Pesel's book Double Running or Back Stitch. At the time of publication, the sampler was in the private collection of Mrs. Clement Williams.

I worked the blackwork bands using one strand of Soie d'alger silk thread on 35 ct. linen. The motif is mirror imaged on the burgundy stocking, giving it a very different look from the gold.

After the embroidery was completed and I had selected rich fabrics to go with them, I drew a very elongated stocking pattern because I felt it would go with the Dickensian look of the velvet, cording and tassels.

The decorative rolled hem - the same used on some of my scarves - is the antique hem stitch from Therese deDilmon'ts book on Needlework. However, I added an additional pulled thread detail from the same book. No instructions were given on how to do it, but a clear photo of the technique 'in process', on page 465, is enough for the experienced embroiderer to work it out.

For the last stocking, I decided to use one of my samplers for its original purpose. The sampler is a reproduction available from the The Scarlet Letter. The original was worked circa 1625, and probably intended as a record of patterns. You can read about the dating and history of the sampler in the Sept / Oct 1993 issue of Piecework Magazine.

For the stocking, I used the same reversible stitches as the original sampler, with Soie d'alger threads on 35 ct. linen.

I simply took a section of the sampler and used it for the stocking band, adding the holly leaves, from another band, at both the top and bottom. These stockings, stitched over 15 years ago, were my first attempt at adapting old patterns for my own use.

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I love the over-the-top glamour of Elizabethan embroidered fashions and the elegance of antique French monogrammed linens. Since I can’t go back in time to enjoy the splendour of those distant eras, I reinvent them for today’s fashions & decor. I invite you to get out your best china, indulge in a pot of tea & decadent pastry and join me on my odyssey....